Using Technology to Help Identify Terrorists

5/15/2013 5:37AM

In the aftermath of the Boston bombings, facial-recognition technology is being seen as an important tool to help in criminal investigations. The WSJ’s Jason Bellini explains how it works and why it sometimes fails.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... Ch ... her driver's license passport ... or heaven forbid get arrested ... your pictures taken ... entered into government databases ... theoretically that major markets workable by law enforcement ... but can facial recognition the ... bad guys out of the crowd ... why was that the FBI has a new security cam images ... able to again defied the less Boston Marathon bombers had they hadn't been that image to go to match ... they would pick them up the next day ... Jim Alber said head of government operations for MorphoTrust company specializing in biometric solutions ... has answers ... his company's biggest customer ... the U S government ... R and D office in New Jersey ... don't trust the type of system report the trust's applies to federal agencies ... which is not allowed to name ... the first he had to enroll me into a demo database or the mistake of high quality meats and things ... and and we've determined that yes I'm told ... not to smile ... I'm now in the system with a ... neutral expression on my face and say hello was the marks ... security cameras and can be seen banks and airports was walking out without all ... while I recognize ... them myself when Mr. Alber stroll through the test ... and ... no idea it would be washed right now ... we're both matched it wants ... a new disguise will see it the cameras that will recognize me with sunglasses and hat on facial recognition that defeated ... dislike the book ... that was both of you who have new glasses ... Anna had taken one ... I tried again this time with just the sunglasses ... kidnaps me one other errors like this ... is a problem ... well there's there's four different techniques from geometry of your faith will always be on the skin ... so I can get rich and faster ... pores in your face it's known ... for is a much better but in a bout of bad guys ... Hatton some losses and can probably ... be able to avoid being recognized threat ... what's the solution ... well the solution isn't to happy news everything is possible in the case of the accused Boston bombers ... everything included asking the public for help ... they released the images from the Lord Taylor video and hundreds of years that it will send photographs ... including some very high quality of its dropper says he doesn't have great knowledge of the FBI is Boston investigation ... but more images mean more options for forensic specialists ... was a demonstration of one technique called bio metric Fusion ... multiple low quality video frames get processed by the facial recognition algorithm ... higher frame rate means higher accuracy what would it take to enable long Forstmann to have a watch list and be able to identify the bad guys and a large crowd ... it would take improvements to the optics is what the answer with it so the better the optics of a ... book or technology the best way to get actionable images of crowds is a bottleneck and three point ... three to require people to take their hats and sunglasses off but also take authorities getting access to the millions of images stored by a local state and federal governments ... freezing as the technology improves ... concerns about civil liberties versus public safety ... additionally the Wall Street Journal ...